Adjustable device for hanging pictures.



No. 68!,380. Patented Aug. 27, I901. E. P. TURNER.

ADJUSTABLE DEVICE FOR HANGING PICTURES.

(Application filed m 18, 1901.)

(No Modal.)

INVENTOI? A ATTORNEY UNITED j STATES PATENT Cl rion.

EMERSON P. TURNER, OF NORWICH, CONNECTICUT.

ADJUSTABLE DEVICE FOR HANGING PICTURES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 681,380, dated August 27, 1901.

Application filed May 13, 1901.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EMERSON P. TURNER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Norwich, in the county of New London and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Adjustable Devices for Hanging Pictures, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The chief object of this invention is to provide a strong, convenient, and reasonably cheap device by means of which pictures, wall-brackets, bric-a-brac, 850., may be readily attached to or removed from a wall. Incidentally my said invention embodies the advantage of quick adjustment in order that the picture or other article supported by it may be leveled up, and it also dispenses with the unsightly and unsafe cords and wires so commonly used at this time.

For the purpose of explaining my said invention most clearly I have provided the accompanying sheet of drawings, in which- Figure 1 shows the mannerin which a picture is hung upon a wall by means of mynew device. Fig. 2 is a front face view of the said device detached; and Fig. 3 is avertical sectional view of the plate 5, forming a part of the same. Fig. at is a front face view of a modified form of said plate and of the adjustable plate 0, mounted therein. Fig. 4; is a sectional view taken on the line 4 4. Fig. 5 is a View, partly in section, of the upper end of the screw (1 and of a link hinged thereto.

My improved device is intended to be screwed to the back side of a frame or other article and then suspended from the wall by means of hooks ct, screwed into said wall. The said hooks are each formed with an enlarged disk a, which provides a substantial escutcheon that is screwed tightly against the wall, and thus serves to protect the plaster and to prevent the screw from Working loose under ordinary usage. The exposed end of said hook is preferably formed by bending the material upward at a right angle to the body of the complete hook, substantially as shown in the drawings.

b indicates a plate that is formed with countersunk holes, (three in number, as here shown,) through which screws may be passed to fasten the said plate to a picture or other Serial No. 59,924. (No modelarticle. The central portion of the plate I) is chambered and slotted transversely, as at b, the side walls of said chamber being underout or dovetailed, as is best seen in Fig. 3 of the drawings, and in the elongated chamber thus provided is loosely seated a short plate 0, whose sides conform in shape to the described undercut side walls of the plate I). The outer face of the short plate chas an ex tension 0, that is bored and tapped transversely to the length of plate 0 to receive a screw cl of considerable length. The upper end of screw d is split to receive a link 6, that is hinged in the split screw-head by means of a rivet f. Referring to Fig. 5, it will be seen that the link is formed with a flat edge e, which abuts the flattened end wall of the split in the screw-head and thus serves to limit the folding down of the link in the said screw-head. In said Fig. 5 the link is shown in dotted lines in the position which it assumes when it is supporting a picture and in full lines as it appears when folded down into a convenient position to be slipped onto the hook on, as I shall explain more fully later on.

\Vhen it is desired to use my described device to support, for example, a picture, plates 1) are screwed loosely to the back of the frame of said picture at opposite ends or sides of said frame, the short plates 0 having first been inserted in the chambers b. The screws d may be screwed into the tapped projections 0 either before or after the plates are screwed to the picture-frame. Hooks a are then screwed into the wall, care being taken to locate both hooks at approximately the same height and about the same distance apart as the screws d; but it is not necessary that the hooks should be placed at exactly the same height or that they be located exactly the same distance apart. The frame is then raised to position against the wall, and if the links e and hooks a register prop erly the links (which are then in the position shown in full lines in Fig. 5) are slipped over the-hooks. The weight of the picture as it settles by gravity to its place against the wall causes the links 6 to swing into alinement with the screws (1, as in Fig. 1. If, however, it is found that one of the hooks a is article which it supports.

higher than the other, the frame is first removed from the hooks, and the ditference in the height of the hooks is then quickly compensated for by simply screwing one of the screws (1 farther into its nut c. If it is found that the distance between the hooks a is greater or less than the distance between the centers of the links 6, such difference is readily adjusted by sliding one of the dovetail plates 0 sidewise in its chamber 1). After having thus adjusted the plates 0 (one or both of them) they should be firmly clamped in position by screwing home the screws d, that bind the plates 1) to the back of the pictureframe.

My described device may be cheaply produced, is of pleasing design, and when in use is completely hidden by the picture or other The folding feature of links c makes it possible to adjust said links to a horizontal position, as seen in full lines in Fig. 5, in order to conveniently connect the said links and hooks a before the 1. In a picture-support, in combination, a

transversely-slotted plate, a short plate seated in said slot and formed with a tapped extension as set forth, a screw mounted in said tapped extension,and a link hinged in the end of the said screw.

2. In combination with a hook adapted to be secured to a wall, and a plate adapted to be secured to a picture-frame, or other article, means for adjusting the positions of the said plates relatively to the said hooks, consisting of slidable plates 0, screws d and links e, all substantially as specified.

Signed at Norwich, Connecticut, this 1st day of May, 1901.

EMERSON P. TURNER. \Vitnesses:

FRANK H. ALLEN, MAY F. RITCHIE. 

